Good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to the regular meeting of the Business Housing and Zoning Committee.

I'm Councilmember Jamal Osman.

And I'm the chair of this committee.

Before we begin the meeting, I want to remind all members, staff, and public that this meetings are broadcasted live to enable greater public participation.

They include real-time captioning to increase the accessibility of our proceeding to the community.

Therefore, all speakers need to be mindful to the rate of the speech of their speech so our captioners can understand and transcribe all comments for the broadcast.

We ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments.

We'll be using a speaker management members.

Please sign up.

At this time, I'll ask clerk to call the roll so we can verify a quorum.

Councilmember Vita.

Present.

Cashman is absent.

Jenkins.

Present.

Chavez.

Present.

Vice Chair Chowdry.

Present.

And Chair Osman.

Present.

There are five members present.

Let the record reflect we have a quorum.

Before we proceed to the public hearing, we will first take up our consent agenda, which includes item four through 15.

Item 4 is approving four liquor license.

Item 5 is approving 54 liquor license renewals.

Item 6 is approving three gambling license.

Item 7 is approving a forgiveness to two loans of for Claire apartments.

Item 8 is providing a greater street loan to one uh to one south side clinic located at 1000 Lake Street East.

Item 9 is authorizing director of seabed to clear to certify project funding for the local housing initiative account.

Item 10 is authorizing an ownership opportunity loan to 42nd Street 2nd edition.

Item 11 is approving an unused right-of-way street vacation application located at Harriet Avenue.

Item 12 is amending a previous resolution to update the legislative citation within the resolution.

Item 13 is setting a public hearing for September 30th to consider our ordinance amending alcohol license application preventions.

Item 14 is setting a public hearing for September 30th to consider an ordinance related to the rental dual and license.

Lastly, item 15 is receiving and filing for annual tax increment financing disclosure statement for 2024.

With that, do any of my colleagues have any comments?

Seeing seeing none, I'll move all items for approval, set up public hearing for item 13 and 14, and receive and file item 15.

On that motion, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

And those opposed say nay.

The ayes have it, and the motion carries.

Uh, for more information.

Thank you so much.

Good afternoon, Chair Osman and committee members.

My name is Haley McSparin, and I am a senior project coordinator in CPAD.

I am before you today to recommend the approval of inclusionary zoning tax increment financing, also known as IZTIF for the Seven Points Project.

Seven Points is a new construction marker eight project located in the South Uptown neighborhood in Ward 10.

The project will feature 228 units of housing along with amenities that include a fitness center, wellness suite, co-working areas, and entertainment space for tenants.

The seven points site is currently developed and includes the southern portion of the former Calhoun Square shopping center.

Construction plans include demolition of the permanently closed CB2 furniture store and the southern portion of the shopping center.

The project is complying with conclusionary zoning by providing 20% of units affordable to households at 50% AMI or below in exchange for revenue loss offset assistance from the city, which comes in the form of IZTIF.

This means that seven points will provide 46 units, affordable at 50% AMI or below, for a term of 30 years, including 10 studios, 31 one bedrooms, three two bedrooms, and two three bedrooms.

The IZ TIFF for this project has been sized according to council adopted policy.

This is the only financing requested from the city.

Total development costs are estimated at 57 million.

And other funding sources include private debt and equity, as well as an environmental cleanup grant from Hennepin County.

Seven points is projected to close and start construction this fall.

IZ TIFF is the last piece of financing the developer needs to close.

The seven points IZTIF plan establishes a new housing TIFF district with a term of 26 years.

Pending council approval, the city will issue a pay as you go TIFF note in an amount up to 6,264,000 to the project.

The TIFF plan attached to the staff report provides a breakdown of how the increment will be distributed and used.

Staff did not receive any comments on the plan.

Staff recommends approval of this IZTIF request for the seven points project, and I am happy to take questions at this time.

Thank you so much for that presentation.

We'll have the question is right after the council uh the public comment.

Now I would like to recognize we have been joined by Councilmember McCashman, who also will like uh consent agenda.

Her vote to be counted as aye.

There's no objection.

Thank you so much.

All right.

And now we are going to proceed to up in the public hearing, and I'm going to go through the list, but if you'd like to speak, please sign up on this item.

I would like to invite uh Dan McConnell to speak on this item.

Welcome.

Uh thank you, Chairman Osman, Council members.

Dan McConnell, uh Brother of the Twelfth Ward and uh business manager of the Minneapolis Building Trades.

Just wanted to come and say uh every time there's a project with uh TIFF funding, we're concerned about uh how workers are going to be treated on that project.

We've uh had done some study, we've seen some studies that other folks are going to talk about today about uh of uses of labor that we see on these projects and really appreciate the city council's insistence on uh prevailing wage and other labor standards on your project.

So just wanted to say thank you for that, and I think we're good on this.

Uh, my understanding, so thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh next person is Nate G.

Good afternoon, council.

Uh appreciate your taking the time to listen to public comment on this.

My name is Nate Gruel.

I'm a resident of Warren Dyne, and I worked for an organization called the Fair Contracting Foundation, an organization that was created in 2011 to protect prevailing wage and promote prevailing wage across the state.

Um prevailing wage uh through the kind of latest academic uh studies and uh scholarship on the subject shows that prevailing wage supports not only registered apprenticeship programs, which is beneficial to residents of the city, it promotes uh those pathways into long-term careers that are beneficial to those residents, but it also shows that um prevailing wage supports uh a more productive and safer workforce, and at the end it does not actually increase project costs.

So, again, as I'll uh kind of reflect uh Mr.

McConnell's comments.

Uh, we appreciate the continued use of prevailing wage on projects that the city funds.

Um, if the city is going to be outlaying some financial assistance for projects, we should get some positive benefits for the city uh at the outside of that.

So appreciate your use of that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

Uh, next person is Lucas Franco.

Hi.

Good afternoon.

Uh, Chair Osman and Council members.

My name is Lucas Franco.

I'm the research manager for the laborers union of Minnesota and North Dakota.

We represent about 14,000 members across the state and about 400 in Minneapolis.

I'm here to thank you, as the other two testifiers have for maintaining strong prevailing wage protections on TIFF subsidized projects, including this project, the Seven Points Project.

Too often myself and others from our organization are testifying at hearings around the state, uh city council hearings, raising the alarm, frankly, about what we expect might happen on TIFF subsidized projects, but that's not the case in Minneapolis because Minneapolis has been a real leader in protecting workers on these projects.

While we're confident and thankful for the protections on this project, I do want to take this opportunity to explain why prevailing wage protections are so vital.

A couple years ago, I co-wrote a report with North Star Policy Action called Subsidizing Abuse, how public financing fuels exploitation in affordable housing construction.

The report looked at the widespread use of low road contractors on tax increment finance and low-income housing tax credit subsidized projects.

This report was really motivated by what we were observing in the field talking to workers, where we'd have workers come to us that were working on publicly subsidized projects experiencing wage theft and other forms of abuse.

And something seemed really wrong about that.

This was contractors like absolute drywall that was busted basically, was uh was proven at fault for depriving workers of more than 126,000 in wages, violating child labor laws, misclassifying workers, submitting false and melee and misleading information during the course of an investigation.

And contractors like absolute drywall would get caught cheating, they'd pay their fines, and they'd go right back to work on publicly subsidized projects.

So we wanted to understand how widespread this problem really was.

Uh and I'll just go ahead and wrap up.

We found it was very widespread.

Um we found 84 million in TIFF and LITEX subsidies have gone to in projects employing problematic contractors like this.

And that is the case often and frequently across the state, but it's not the case in Minneapolis, and we really thank you for your leadership on protecting workers through prevailing wage protections.

Thanks so much.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

Are there anyone who will like to speak on this item?

See none.

Uh, close the public hearing and uh I will recognize Councilmember Chowry.

Uh thank you so much, Chair.

Before we move this item, I did uh want to say thank you to the testifiers for coming.

Um absolutely agree.

If we're going to use public subsidy, we should ensure that the workers that are laboring and putting time and effort into these projects have a fair wage, especially prevailing wage and have conditions that treat them with dignity.

I did want to ask staff if they could just share on the record the uh the labor protections that are within this TIFF agreement and uh the agreement to prevailing wage.

I think that would be helpful to get on the record.

Thank you, Councilmember Towery and committee members.

So, yes, prevailing wage requirements do apply to this project.

The project is also required to submit an affirmative action plan, and there are civil rights staff members who are assigned to this project.

And that is all wrapped up into the TIFF contract terms.

Thank you so much.

I will move this for approval.

All right.

Um thank you so much uh for labor unions for coming and speaking on this item.

With that motion, all those in favor say aye.

Aye, and those opposed say nay.

The ayes have it, and the motion carries.

All right.

Next, we have uh public hearing uh for rental hall and extended hours license for free this event venue located at 1501 East Lake Street.

I'll welcome Akbar Mohammed from C uh from Business licensing for more information on that.

Welcome, sir.

Thank you, Chair Osman and committee members.

I am licensed inspector Akbar Mohammed with licenses and consumer services.

I'm presenting an application from Ocampo Lake Catering Inc.

doing business as Frida's event venue, located at 1501 Lake Street East in Ward 9.

The applicants requesting a rental hall and extended hours license.

If approved, they intend to have a rental hall that's available for private events, such as weddings, birthdays, retirement parties, and corporate events.

Patrons will be providing their own food and beverages.

This is a rental hall which has a seating for up to 338 patrons.

On August 25th, 122 public hearing notices were sent to the residents, property owners, and posted on all residential buildings with four or more units within 600 feet of the premises.

Notices were also sent to the Powder Horn Park Neighborhood Association.

And Councilmember Jason Chavez.

We received one comment from the community, one in support of this application.

Zero are opposed.

Due to this being a new business that has not operated before, there was no review of any complaints.

Thank you so much for that uh presentation.

I'm going first to proceed to open the public hearing and um recognize Brenda Short.

Hi, welcome.

Thank you for having me.

As a candidate running for mayor of our city, I'm saying not right now.

I do support our small businesses to open to be open late, but that area is three steps from my door.

And as you've seen on the news, more gun violence in unhoused neighbors are right there.

And it would be reckless for the city to put this on late hours because I'm already making video about how many gun violence is in my area outside my front door.

This is only a few steps from outside my door.

I'm axing not to say no to it.

I'm asking the city council to push it back until we can get more police officers, more security, because it is our duty as citizens of community to know that gun violence will accidentally shoot somebody at two o'clock in the morning at a venue.

My neighbor was sitting in her home the other day, and she got shot in her home.

This is not, I'm not saying not to do this because I support that business.

I'm just saying, not not right now.

We cannot allow another innocent bystander get shot in the middle of the night.

And I support the business, and I'm very, very sorry that I had to come and stop my campaign to say this.

I just got that notice in the mail yesterday.

That's why I rushed down here.

I'm saying not right now.

It is not safe.

We can't even get.

I I got mugged on Friday a week ago, and it took them three days to do a police report.

And and they only did a police report because my car got broken into.

Not right now.

Push it back to January.

I'm just saying not right now.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

Are there anyone else who would like to speak on this item?

See, none.

I'll close the public hearing and maybe I'll just uh call before I recognize Councilmember Chavez, who represents the area.

I up there's one more speaker.

Okay, I will pre-open the public hearing and recognize that gentleman, sir.

Can you announce your name and uh hi there?

Um so I'm Julian Ocampo uh with uh Ocampo Lake Catering.

I'm here with my mom Nilian Sagala.

And uh I kind of wanted, yeah, I guess to explain a little bit too of the whole business.

Um, so uh with um, you know, what uh the last uh person said I I agree with that.

Uh there is a lot of violence there.

It's not because of uh us in any way.

There's uh we've been dealing with that since my parents bought the building in 2019.

We've worked with the city uh with the Lake Street Council.

Uh I every like week I talk to uh Minneapolis Police Department for different things that happen there.

We do have cameras, so I talk I work with them a lot to get any footage or as much information or help that they need.

Um I'm never against all of that.

Um, and that's something that I have been saying as well for for a lot of time now for a lot of years, that that um street, that corner, 15th and lake, that my parents own the building there.

It needs a lot more um help from the city, from the from the police department from anywhere.

I mean, we we can't do it ourselves.

We try our best.

Uh we rented, you know, the place out before, not the event venue, but there's a restaurant there.

Um that restaurant was not the best uh tenant.

So we work with uh attorney lawyer, we we got them out.

So now uh I guess our plan was to for us to be landlords and tenants and manage the whole thing ourselves.

Like we do at another building that we own, but that's in St.

Paul.

Um, and we've seen a lot of success doing that.

So that is the plan.

That was the plan with uh with this this license.

That's step one, and then step two would be the restaurant, and obviously uh we we do want to have a liquor license there.

If that is gonna be a problem, you know, we can just wait, we can work with the the community with everybody, because we're not here to do any more uh damage.

We're here to obviously we we have to run a business there to uh to you know pay the bills and everything.

So that's the whole uh story behind it.

And I wanted to you know explain our our view and I agree.

So I I appreciate you coming up and speaking to us.

Thank you so much.

Alright, once again I'll close the public hearing and uh my comment is that uh maybe I'll have a question with Sir Mr.

Mohammed.

If you can come up, the staff, um or Amy, whichever.

Uh my comment is that you know, uh, we might have a gun violence issue in our our city, but we can't punish uh uh businesses that are doing everything uh they can to stay uh and and you know uh be a taxpayer and be a good citizen our city.

So what specific issue related to any violence have you heard specifically on this business?

Are there any any comments or any incident that happened in the past, specifically this building or this business?

Chair Osman, thank you for that question.

So that location has had some struggles with the business that was there before.

Um but most of those were uh tax and financially related.

The issues with that area are not necessarily tied to the businesses that are at 1500 on that block itself, and so we don't have any issues with the business as far as contributing to that.

They do have a science security plan and they are willing to follow all of those recommendations from the MPD as well as us.

Thank you so much for clarifying that.

Uh I support uh your uh your license uh for approval for this today, and I will definitely um say that you know businesses in in our neighborhood uh deserve um the safety and and protection, and we need to be able to uh uh support.

Lake Street has been struggling since 2020, and I welcome your business and thank you so much for doing business with City Minneapolis.

Uh I saw Councilmember Chavez.

Do you wanna do that?

Uh thanks, Chair Osman.

I yeah, I'd like to recognize that you know there has been a ton of gun violence impacting our city uh this year and obviously years prior, but we are feeling it tremendously over the past few weeks right now in Minneapolis, including uh lake and 15th.

Uh there was a shooting a couple days ago that ended up uh killing somebody and injuring another individual.

So it's important to to recognize the comments that Brenda is saying, but we cannot be tying it to a particular small business when it is happening across our city.

Uh the third precinct and FPD has met with the applicant and discussed the security issues, and the applicant has met the minimum ordinance requirements to get this approved.

Um, and it is being recommended by staff to approve this.

I think, you know, my staff and I sent an email to our city staff, I believe, was it a couple of days ago, maybe even Monday, about the ongoing issues we continue to see on 15th and lake that require more than just the Minneapolis police department.

There are livability issues, trash all over the lake and 15th, um, a lot of drug dealing, a lot of issues that need to be systematically addressed across multiple different departments, not just the Minneapolis Police Department.

And the reason I'm saying that out loud is because I did send an email of how can we address these issues that have been here on 15th and Lake for a variety of years, and it's not tied to this business as we've seen.

Uh our staff is asking us to approve this, so I will move approval of this item, but I am going to say that the issues impacting Lake and 15th are severe and need to be addressed from a multi uh departmental action in the city.

So, thank you, Councilmember Shravis.

Councilmember Chowdhury.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I just had a quick question for staff.

I'm just trying to understand for the extended hours.

Is this just for when there is going to be a rental of the space?

When there's a private event.

Jerry Osman, Councilmember Chowdhury.

The this license is for a rental hall for private events only, so the extended hours would be for when events occur if those events wanted to go later.

So it is not necessarily if it's booked out seven days a week, then maybe, but it will be based off of their bookings.

That's great.

So it's not um 365 every day, 2 a.m.

It's uh it's specifically for weddings, birthdays, retirement parties, corporate events.

And I think I just want to uplift that because I think it's a it's a positive activation of the corridor.

And I think one thing that helps in communities that experience violence and trauma is having positive activation and places for people to gather and also do recognize the really fair comments that uh Brenda brought forward.

And I know that we are all reeling, especially since um the mass shootings yesterday.

I was there um on the scene last night um at Lake in Hiawatha until 1 a.m.

And I know that our Southside community is.

Is really really hurting.

And so I'm I'm looking forward to figuring out what next steps we can take.

Okay, thank you so much.

Uh well, see no one else.

I will um with the motion to approve uh this license.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

The ayes have it, and the motion carries.

Thank you for coming.

All right, next, we have a public hearing for liquor license application with limited entertainment and 2 a.m.

license for Cedar Inn at 4141 Cedar Avenue South.

I will again welcome manager Amy Lingo to give us that presentation.

Welcome.

Thank you, Chair Osman and committee members.

My name is Amy Lingo, and I'm the manager for business licensing in CPED.

I'm presenting an application from Harry Cedar Inn Incorporated, DBA as Cedar Inn, located at 4141 Cedar Avenue South in Ward 12.

The applicant is requesting an on-sale, limited entertainment with Sunday sales and 2 a.m.

license.

If approved, they attend to relocate their existing restaurant to the adjacent property to a newly renovated and larger space, as well as to upgrade to full liquor from their existing strong beer and wine license.

If approved, this restaurant will serve breakfast, sandwiches, burgers, and a variety of appetizers, along with alcohol service.

They are requesting limited entertainment, which is current in their existing license as well, which will include DJ, karaoke, and small bands.

They will provide 100 interior seats and 38 seats outside on two separate private patios, which are screened from the adjacent properties.

20 seats on the parking lot side towards the rear, and 18 on the front direct to Cedar Avenue.

The proposed hours of operation, interior, 7 a.m.

to 2 a.m.

Outdoor hours for the private patios are 7 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

There is no entertainment on the outside patios.

On August 25th, 181 public hearing notices were sent to residents, property owners, and posted on all residential buildings with four or more units within 600 feet of the premises.

Notices were also sent to the Standish Erickson neighborhood Organization and council member Chowderry.

We have received 20 comments from the community, one in support, one in support with some concerns, and 18 that are opposed.

The concerns listed vary, but intrinsically most of them are listed as patron sound levels, music sound levels after 10 p.m., over intoxication, the 2 a.m.

operating hours, and parking.

The new location is the former Gopher Staging Building.

The security plan was submitted and approved by the Crime Prevention Specialist.

3 and 1 complaints for the existing business have been minimal, and three recent business license inspections of the business have not observed any sound patron conduct or alley use violations.

However, due to the number and content of the concerns, licenses and consumers division would like to request continuing this item for one to two cycles so that we would have more time to discuss the concerns with the community and with the applicant.

This concludes my presentation.

At this time, I will stand for any comments or questions.

Thank you so much.

We're going to take the questions after everyone speaks on the public hearing.

And I have a list of people that came today to speak on this item.

So I'm going to go one by one, and I'm sorry if I mispronounce your name.

So be patient with me.

First person is Jean Landwick.

Welcome, sir.

Good afternoon.

I'm Jim Lavick.

I own the Cedar Inn.

Um what I'm looking to do is move to a new building.

Our new building, it will be a lot more sealed and enclosed.

There will be less people outside.

Um the bar I own is the greatest bar in the world.

It's a community place, a community place to meet.

We have many people that compliment about our wings, our service, um, and so we try to do better.

Um, when I got there, that bar was dying.

It was it's 73 year old years old now, and I don't believe it would make it another 10 years or five years.

Um, we've did more events, more traffic.

We had we started out with 350,000 in sales, we're doing 1.2 and 1.3 million.

Do we need to do better on stuff?

Absolutely.

And we're constantly talking to our staff about noise.

We're talking to our staff about every issues constantly.

Um, so we're doing a lot, and can we do more?

Yeah, if the revenue increases enough so we could pay additional staff, we could have full-time security.

And uh, that's the reason I'm applying for this isn't to move to another building and grow the business more.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

Uh, next person is Stephanie is Mark Hart.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, council people for giving us a chance to uh speak to this important issue.

I'm a 20-year neighbor on Longfellow Avenue, and I can tell you that our neighborhood is very concerned about the impact of taking a problem establishment like the Cedar Inn and expanding its capacity, at least by the notice we got by 300% from about 70 patrons to 230.

If the if it's only 100 in the interior, so be it.

But it's still a big increase.

That means more parking problems, more drunk driving, more bad behavior, three times the noise, three times the trash on our street, three times more, getting woken up at 2 30 in the morning when you need to work the next day.

Three times more rude people, three times more drug use, which we have experienced.

This expansion is not agreeable to us.

This is a working class neighborhood with many young children and people who need to be in bed at a reasonable hour because they need to go to work.

The Cedar Inn is a drinking establishment that serves food.

It serves a party lifestyle.

Being open at 2 a.m., it becomes a mandate for serious partiers, big drinkers who come from other neighborhood bars that close at a reasonable hour, like 11 or midnight, and the Cedar Inn has a higher density around it of uh residences than any of those other bars.

The only comparable bar would be the Cardinal Restaurant, which is on the Hiawatha Light Rail Line, which is a completely different situation.

The addition of an outdoor patio will add even more noise, and that patio could be on the side of the building, closer to the residences.

From what I've heard today, it could be like 15 feet away, or just across the alley from a house that is on the alley.

The addition of hard liquor will make all those problems worse.

The addition of entertainment will make mean more noise.

I notice in their application, they mentioned literary readings.

Ah, yes, they're famous Cedar Inn, literary readings.

Give me a break, that is I wash.

When I read that noise, amplified music by disc jockeys, uh, any number of musicians, karaoke, et cetera.

Thank you.

I think the application obviously should be denied.

Thank you so much.

Uh next person is Fern Weiss.

I'm shorter than Jeff.

Hi, everybody, and thank you very much.

Um I'm on Longfellow Avenue, so I'm a neighbor to the Cedar and Jeff has really spoken to so many of our uh concerns with the opening.

I think for me, the biggest concern is staying open to two, and also having places for folks to hang out on the outside.

It can get super, super noisy.

Uh I appreciate that Jim has said that that would close at 10 to start bringing the people in.

And if that could be done, you know, it might be a tenable situation.

But in the past, we've seen that that can't really be done to the extent that we would like to see it as a residential neighborhood, not just with working people, but with children as well.

Um that's pretty much all I have to say.

I appreciate your work.

I do appreciate all the work that the Cedar Inn has been trying to do to meet uh the needs of the community as well.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Next person is Janet Nay.

Um I was actually before her signing up.

Your name, sir?

I was uh my name, sir is uh David Picking.

Yeah, you're right.

Sorry, go ahead.

Please go ahead, David.

I oppose the granting of new licenses for Cedar Inn based on the information provided.

Now he says this is just going to be a move from one building to another, but he has not specified what he's going to do with the existing building.

I suspect it will also be a bar.

Um it's all set up for that.

And the information we got did not make it clear.

It's ridiculous for the public to have to guess something as fundamental as that.

So I live at 4200 Cedar Avenue South, very close to the existing Cedar Inn within sight and sound.

It's unclear.

So if the um other bar continues in operation, this represents a very significant expansion of its operation, causing the sorts of problems.

The previous speaker referred to.

So this public hearing is premature.

Also, there's no idea what the security plan is.

It just refers to there is a security plan.

This does not help the neighbors.

Um the diagram of the bar is so unclear, it gives no information at all.

There's no labels.

We're left to guess what's going on here before we have a public hearing.

That's not the right order for things.

So what's the plan for unloading beer trucks?

Currently, they almost all block a driving lane because there is no parking for them.

The parking that is there is insufficient, as uh the owner has said in the past.

So it's it's now going to be even worse.

They have currently I counted them 12 spots for parking, and they're talking about seating for um, you know, a hundred and twenty people or more.

So Jen will follow up with um some more.

So here yep.

It's very good that the outdoor plaza will close by 10 p.m., but that doesn't mean very much if the outdoor area is in front of the original building continues to be used until 2 a.m.

Until the public knows more, this council should take no action on this license.

This there is a possibility of significant harm to the neighborhood.

The site plan on page three is nearly useless for the public.

It should have labels for the various uses or a key or the sim for the symbols used.

Is there a kitchen in the new premises, or will the owner rely on the present kitchen in the original facility?

I suspect there will be more emphasis on alcohol rather than food in the new location.

It's very good that the oh, yeah, okay.

Uh a neighbor has suggested the negotiation of a good neighbor agreement in exchange for the approval of a license.

This would lay out enforceable conditions to mitigate any harms.

I approve of that.

Such an agreement must include no outdoor drinking or other activities outdoors after 10 p.m.

We've been subjected to unacceptable noise until 2 a.m.

or even later.

There's currently boisterous talking.

The cornhole game leads to a continuous thunking noise as the beanbags hit the target.

When one goes in that hole, there's a loud cry of success.

There seems to be no attempt by the bar to keep the noise level down.

There's also been loud noise as people leave at 2 a.m.

The bar appears to cater to some motorcyclists who come roaring down the street.

The bar should discourage this.

With patrons having to park farther away in residential neighborhoods, there will be more noise from loud, obnoxious drunk patrons.

Most of the bar's current clients are quiet and respectful of the neighbors, but there are notable exceptions.

Bar needs to provide significantly more off-street parking or negotiate with the city for a reinstatement of the parking lot that has been lost.

The information provided by the city is inadequate and was updated just yesterday.

However, the bar owner could have provided more information himself.

He applied for the license over five weeks ago.

He could have and should have reached out to the neighbors to get the reaction to his plans before applying the city for the needed licenses.

The negative reactions from everyone I've heard should not be a surprise to him.

To my knowledge, an owner has not proactively contacted anyone in the neighborhood.

I asked you to deny these licenses, or at the very least, postpone the process to allow informed public comment.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next person is Nicholas Jarney.

Thank you for having me today.

As you've heard from other members of the community, the noise as well as trash and other issues have continued to be an issue since the new ownership has taken over.

I have lived at my current location across from the Cedar Inn for over a decade.

And I did not ever have to call the previous management for any issues, whereas now I have called half a dozen times in the last five years.

I have noticed a number of additional scary behaviors that have increased over time.

I cannot recall a single instance of cars being overturned in front of my house under previous management.

And that has happened multiple times since.

But I can certainly tell you that it has increased in the last few years.

I can tell you that if that were their actions, I would not be here today.

I also speaking to the new building.

I'm just witnessing this last weekend.

I witnessed people walking to and from the businesses with drinks in their hand, stumbling around on the sidewalk, very close to falling into the street itself.

This is not something that I would consider to be particularly safe, and I appreciate the council taking this time to look at amending this offer.

All right, thank you so much.

Next portion is Zoe Gizen.

Thank you so much.

I'm really grateful that our neighbors have an opportunity to have our voices heard today because the proposed bar expansion will have a tremendous impact on the neighborhood.

I really love living here, and I think that the businesses on 42nd and Cedar are an asset to us.

I love that I can grab a burrito late at night.

I love that I can get a burger.

The wings are great.

However, I do believe that our neighborhood businesses need to also be good neighbors to us.

The Cedar Inn has demonstrated to us over and over again that they do not see it as their responsibility to be good neighbors.

I have lived here for four years, and throughout the warmer seasons, I've experienced regular and frequent noise disturbances that can be heard from 18th Avenue.

I wouldn't mind so much the noise earlier in the evening, but at least once a week, I am hearing people shouting at the top of their lungs between one and two in the morning.

In some cases, people are shouting because they're having a really good time playing Cornhole on the sidewalk, which is great that they're having so much fun, but at two in the morning, that is just not okay.

And in other cases, I hear people fighting, and that makes me feel a lot less safe.

I do think that the yelling and fighting are signs that patrons are getting overserved at the bar.

And I see other signs of patrons having been overserved as well.

When they are walking past my house on 42nd Street, unsteady, stumbling, sometimes loudly singing, talking, or yelling to themselves.

I can tell that those people have been served way too much.

My concern is that in a larger location and with the addition of hard liquor, these problems would only increase.

We, as neighbors, have no reason to think it would get better if they have not been able to manage these behaviors at a small location.

There, I believe there's a place for larger venues that want to have entertainment and hard liquor and a 2 a.m.

close, and that place would be in an entertainment district such as downtown.

But it's not reasonable to expect our neighbors to bear the consequences of that kind of venue and all the noise and disorderly conduct that comes with it.

So I would ask the city deny this permit as the bar has already demonstrated a disregard for the peace and safety at their smaller location.

And I want to thank you for hearing our voices and considering the well-being and safety of our neighbors.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

Next person is Chad Hubeck.

Hi, thank you.

Hi.

I live at 4148 Longfellow Avenue.

I'm behind the bar.

I've dealt with a lot of different issues over the course of the last four years, and I have been there for over 20 years and did not have the same issues with the previous owners.

First off, for the guy to say that he's going to shut down that patio at 10 p.m., my question to him is: why isn't it happening now?

Do you have a patio in the front of the building?

It's not closing at 10.

It's constantly, we constantly have loud noise.

I've talked to people that have parked inside of my house because we were told to call the police, but the last time somebody called the police, when somebody was in front of their house, they were shot.

So I'm a little leery about calling the police or going out and confronting somebody after that incident.

But I did this probably three weeks ago, and it was 2:30 in the morning.

I go outside and I say, hey, what is going on out here?

You know, you guys need to go home.

We just left the bar.

I don't really care.

You need to go home.

You know, you're being loud.

Well, what do you expect?

You live in Minneapolis.

So these people are obviously not from our community that are going to the bar.

If that's what they're telling me that I live in Minneapolis, I should expect loud noise at 2 o'clock.

Also, I've had people pull in at 11 o'clock, assuming that the other bars in the area which close at 11.

Now they're gonna come to the Cedar Inn.

They get out of their car, they urinate on our sidewalk, which freezes to our sidewalk, which is really pleasant.

You know, have you ever chipped urine off your sidewalk, sir?

Because it's not fun.

Anyways, that's the kind of stuff that keeps going on.

It doesn't seem to matter anything else.

And also, they're not trying to pull permits and stuff.

They're building, and then they're asking for the permits.

They have been working in the new establishment for a while.

I don't know if they're pulling permits or not.

I haven't bothered to check, but they were gonna build a patio out back before, and they're not getting permission from the city before they're doing that.

They put the cornhole game out.

They did not ask the city for permission to do that.

I wrote to the city on the cornhole game before, and they had to pull it from their patio.

Oh, anyways, my time's up.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

Uh, next person is Avis Thomas.

Welcome.

Thank you for hearing us.

First, I'm wondering, um, there's quite a few neighbors who are here because they're opposed to what the Cedar Inn wants to do.

Not all of them are speaking, but I'm wondering if they can all stand up for a minute so that the city council could see them.

Thank you.

That's a lot of people in the middle of a work day.

People who you know, never been in this building before, who you know came down here, and then you've gotten so many written comments as well.

Um, there have been a lot of good points made.

I would like to say I am a homeowner at 4124 Longfellow Avenue, and when I bought my house when I made that huge investment, um uh I understood that I was on a quiet block in a residential neighborhood, and I have enjoyed many years.

Um, that I was back in 2000, so 25 years ago, and I've enjoyed many years that way.

The businesses um on Cedar Avenue or and on 42nd Street are things that are really quiet.

A pizza shop, um, uh a Mexican restaurant, a great little one, mostly takeout, um, a vintage store, a barbershop, um, the lighting store that was there, and a neighborhood bar that was, you know, mostly for people in the neighborhood.

People a lot of people walked to the bar, and I thought that was just great.

It was a chance to connect over a water watering hole.

But what's going on now is um really bad for property values.

It would really change the nature of the whole block.

Uh, some of my favorite neighbors have kids, and they're not gonna stay if it's not an okay place for kids.

I think residential neighborhoods should be okay places for good places for kids to be.

Um, and um I want to be able to trust the city to keep my neighborhood in decent shape and protect my assets as a homeowner.

I'll need that money when I retire.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

All right, we have two more speakers to go.

Uh I think the name spell Eric Barker or Parker.

Welcome.

Hello council.

My name is Ari Paisert.

I'm a homeowner and business owner on the corner of 42nd in Cedar.

Uh I have concerns about uh the expanded liquor license, the hours, and the effect it's gonna have on parking in our neighborhood.

I've um, over the last four years, me and my uh fellow business neighbors have had windows smashed out at least once a year.

On one occasion, uh one of the people came back and apologized to us.

They said they were entering, they were had issues with alcoholism, they're at Cedar in.

They entered the program, they wanted to come make amends.

Um they did come and apologize then.

Uh Cedar and customers cause a lot of noise for the neighborhood.

Uh the urinate in the alley, especially when they have outdoor events.

Uh we found feces and flower beds.

Uh there's a lot of trash.

Um in 2023, we are the neighborhood of the cross streets lost about 30 parking spots um for bike paths and you know, safer crosswalks, which uh you know we supported and looks look great.

Uh we did lose parking.

Some of the smaller businesses we've adjusted, adjusted.

Um there seems to be parking issues with Cedar in.

Uh people continue to park along Cedar Avenue in non-parking spots.

Uh it slows down the traffic as if not coming to a complete halt.

Uh I know a big reason for the expansion or moving from one space to another was for the parking lot.

Uh I think currently they have 12 to 20 parking spaces.

Half of them are cover are fenced off right now.

So 10 parking spots to help 230 people come into that business.

Um, and to be clear, it's 230 people is how many people they want to have there.

It's not 100 here, 18 here, 20 there, 230 people.

There are no other restaurants or bars in the neighborhood that uh can support that much.

And I must say uh in the spring of 2023, I was contacted by Minneapolis police about concerns of a patron at Cedar Inn who had fallen and hit their head outside of the sidewalk and bled out and died on the sidewalks outside of one of the small businesses.

Uh I've had the police and a couple of customers reach out to us.

I would never like to see or hear anything about that again.

Thank you for the time.

Thank you, person.

Last person does sign up is Rob P.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Rob.

I live across the alley from the expansion building.

Thank you to the council.

And uh I want to say thank you to Jim for bringing commerce to our neighborhood for building something new, which I do respect and can only imagine comes with a lot of challenges.

I want to acknowledge that.

Uh name that I appreciate it.

We were neighbors with Gopher Stage and Lighting who occupied the expansion for several several years when we left our garage door open.

Uh they closed it when their alarm when uh their alarm went off.

We let them know during winters we would shovel each other's concrete pads, types of courtesies that we all know are neighborly, and really ultimately that's my goal to have a neighborly relationship with whoever's in that building.

There was an incident last week, which I think is a good uh kind of microcosm of both my goals and concerns.

In the middle of a weeknight, someone started a small fire at the back of the expansion building surrounded by pole tabs.

When I noticed, I doused the embers, took photos and sent an email to Cedar in, which is, you know, a common sense neighborly response.

But an incident like that when there is no hard liquor involved, and bar occupancy is one-fifth of plan makes me concerned.

Of course, I don't think anybody expects a business to police all of its patrons and all of their activities after hours, but you can implement mitigations.

Alley lights, a camera, an employee doing regular sweeps of the property, policies that don't prevent every single incident, but will shift the average.

And policies like that aren't just for the neighborhood.

But it was up against the wall of the building.

You can see scorch marks on it now.

To me, it looked more like a bad decision than attempted arson, but any strategy to reduce the risks of bad decisions post-bar close, reduce the risk for the business too.

So it would be a win-win.

There are many possible scenarios with their own corresponding policy responses, but that's just an example.

If we were to understand and have a dialogue about such polit policies, I think it would go a long way.

I think we have a neighborhood that is anxious because it feels out of control and a business that feels attacks attacked because it doesn't have visibility to everything the neighborhood experiences.

And maybe this could be helped by establishing communication and some agreed-upon policies.

Uh I uh we'll continue too much longer, but there's something called a good neighbor agreement, which we've brought up.

I like to hear that you want to delay the cycle a bit.

Thank you so much.

Alright, we can implement something like that's line up.

Adam Dreesey.

Thank you, Councilmembers.

I was just watching in the in the overflow room, and I just wanted to say this is exactly what's wrong with Minneapolis.

Can you address the council, sir?

When are the people who are running businesses in this city going to start respecting each other?

When is that gonna happen?

That's what I want to know.

When are we gonna start respecting each other?

That's all.

Thank you so much for your testimony.

Are there anyone else who would like to speak?

Welcome.

Please state your name.

Good afternoon, council members.

My name is Todd.

I'm a homeowner and live around the corner from the Cedar Inn.

Um I do want to paint the picture of the neighborhood that we're talking about here.

Uh we have single family homes.

Um, a lot of young kids, our neighbors are baby uh had just had a baby.

Um we've had concerns about the Cedar Inn for years.

Um we've had concerns about over serving.

We've had concerns about overcrowding in the bar for years.

I've lived here for 15 years.

Um this establishment is is something that um I think has been an issue for the community and the neighborhood for a while now.

We hear loud noises in the middle of the night, a lot of motorcycles um reviving their engines at one in the morning.

Um it's not acceptable.

Uh this is something that should not be acceptable in any community.

Um we don't accept it in our community either.

Um and this is uh this is coming associated with the Cedar In.

Um there is nothing else that's open that late at night around our neighborhood.

Um I would be okay if there wasn't.

Nonetheless, um there are issues that uh we've had personally at my house with the Cedar Inn where people have jumped our fence to get to the Cedar In for some reason.

I don't know, probably because they were intoxicated and overserved.

And I've witnessed overserving at the Cedar Inn.

Um I've talked to people that were overserved at the Cedar Inn.

There's major issues with that.

There's issues with gambling at the Cedar Inn.

Um, there's a free poker night that is advertised at the Cedar Inn.

Um there's illegal fireworks that have been going on at the Cedar Inn on July 4th.

Not something that the city has condoned, I understand, but something that has gone on nonetheless.

Uh there have been fights in the parking lot at the Cedar Inn.

Um there are some serious, very serious concerns with even keeping the Cedar Room continuing, um, let alone allowing the license to expand the operation.

So I'm very worried about this, and I think that everybody here can pretty much you know say that they are as well.

Um we want to protect our neighborhood.

We want to protect the families and the young children in our neighborhood and especially people that are in the neighborhood that are you know pedestrians and bikers, which we have a lot of as well.

So thank you for your time and I appreciate it.

You guys have a nice day.

Thank you so much.

Anyone else who would like to speak in this item?

See, yes, come on in.

Hello, um, my name is James Collis.

I also live on that block, and I just I have a young child, and the the current state of the front patio is if you walk down the sidewalk.

If we just go for a walk around the block, we're walking through an active bar where people are like very intoxicated and just in the day.

Um, and I just can't think of a situation in the universe that would make it seem like a good idea to scale that way up.

And I drive by it every night, every Sunday night around 10 30, and it is never shut down on the patio.

I don't know if it didn't occur to me that they were claiming that they would shut down the patio at 10.

It's just very active.

I'm not luckily I I haven't been woken up at 2 a.m., I'm pretty heavy sleeper.

But uh I also wanted to say that a lot of the people in the neighborhood with young children were not able to make it to this because of the time and location, and I know a lot of them have written, but I wanted to just sort of uh shout out to them, I guess.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

So uh we're gonna continue the keep keep the public here and open and I will recognize Vice Chair Chowry.

Thank you, Chair Osman.

I want to first start off by addressing the community that's here, the Ward 12 residents.

Thank you so much for being here and coming to City Hall to testify.

I know I have met with and spoken with many of you over the last few months, and you have shared your concerns.

A lot of the concerns I share as well.

Um I want to I want to also echo that there are a lot of people who wanted to be here, but they are currently working and unable to be here as was stated.

A lot of people are really concerned about this corridor and this neighborhood, and I uh would recommend to my colleagues um that may be unfamiliar with the area to just take a look on how this how this business is situated.

It is designated in a commercial area but completely surrounded um by residences.

And one thing that feels very notable for me is as a council member that's been here representing the community for two years.

This is an issue that I have inherited, right?

This has been occurring before I even represented the community, and um in I think I believe in 2020 when we were um in the throes of COVID, um there was uh a licensing to extend the hours to 2 a.m.

And there wasn't an opportunity for community participation in the way in which I think community members would have shown up to share their concerns about the business being open for that long.

I'll share with my colleagues, like this business is one of the very few businesses that is open every single night, three, six, five, seven days a week until 2 a.m.

And oftentimes activities do not conclude until past 2 a.m.

And the issues that I feel are worth uplifting are injurious to people's health and safety, the over serving of community members, um uh activity in the alleyways, like using the bathroom there, that's not being a good neighbor.

Of course, the noise issues, especially when parents and people are trying to go to bed at night and go to work the next day.

And this is not at any way to be anti-business, right?

We just previously um supported a license for extended hours um for rental hall, and we do that regularly.

But when these concerns are brought up to us repeatedly, we have to intervene.

And I shared um with many of the community members that are here is that this public hearing is an opportunity for action and opportunity for change.

Um I hope the business owner would be amenable for a conversation for us to come up with some sort of good neighbor agreement to work with the city to see what a path forward can be.

Um I appreciate Jim for sitting down and meeting with me and hearing the concerns that I raised in that kind of conversation.

I wish that there was more of an openness for compromise, because I think there is room in this neighborhood for Cedar Inn and the neighbors feeling like they are being treated the way that they deserve to be treated, just like how they would treat uh a local business and other local businesses in the area.

I um will also say that we are talking specifically about a license for an expansion into another building.

This business is currently present, right, at this at the current Cedar In location, and I would like to work with our city staff to address the issues that are currently happening at this location, right?

Separate from this license being approved or denied or conditioned, whatever we decide to do.

We need to address the concerns that are presently happening, and these concerns are real.

I want to affirm that to everyone for the moments that they've heard that they were are not real.

They are real.

And I am grateful that you have uh filed 311 complaints that you have reached out to my office and that you have showed up today.

Um with that, I would like to move that we continue this item for two cycles for an opportunity for our business licensing team to work with the community and the business owner.

And I plan to be present um to the meeting or whatever steps will occur next.

So just thank you again for showing up today.

Councilmember Fita.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, and thank you, Councilmember Chowdry.

I do support your motion to uh delay this for a couple cycles, but just wanted to um ask a couple questions, and one being is there like an excessive amount of police calls or something to for staff that is going on with this business.

Thank you, and Councilmember Vitaw.

Um, currently for 2025 at the exact address, we are showing 10 police calls.

I have not done the research to figure out if they're related specifically to Cedar in.

Um, I also haven't done the see if anything that's not specific to just that address.

So there might be some more of that area, but police calls themselves aren't uh necessarily the issue.

And that so that wouldn't be even if it was 10 calls related to that address, that's not considered excessive or like um something that we would be able to deny a license over.

Thank you for that question.

So 10 in and of themselves probably would not be enough to recommend denial, it would depend on what those 10 were.

So I would have to wait that depending on what they were.

Thank you.

Um, you know, we just listened to the um the matter before this the public hearing, and that person kind of said the same thing that these 20 people said that their neighborhood restaurant or bar has some problems, and my colleagues said that we're going through a problematic time in Minneapolis right now with gun violence and with other things.

And so um, I mean, she was told that we're gonna do better as a city to help her, and I I'm hoping that that's the case with this uh this neighborhood plan as well.

Is there an approved safety plan in this application also through the chaircast member veto?

Yes, there is an approved safety plan.

And that safety plan is no different than anybody else's safety plan.

It's uh just like the safety plan, it's reviewed, it's reviewed by the police precinct, and then it's approved as part of the application.

That is correct.

Okay, thank you.

Um, so I I like like I said, I um appreciate delaying for a month because I hope that the community and this owner can work together um to do what they need to do.

But as someone who represents a ward that would love to have uh this business in it, I also ask the owner to look at some spaces, some really cool spaces we have available in ward four.

You may have to change the name to 45th and PN or uh the Laurean or something like that, but I really do appreciate you um coming here today speaking on behalf of your business, and we'll hope that you would look at some other parts in uh in the city, especially in ward four.

We need more of this in in my ward, and we would welcome you.

There's some there is actually some really cool businesses for sale right now in Ward 4 that um we would love for you to have, and I know that the residents of War 4 would appreciate.

We are a hidden gym in this city, and we would love for you to come there with your business and um serve us and our family.

So thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Uh your your minutes are uh I would like to recognize Councilmember Cashman.

Thank you, Chair Osman.

I just wanted to offer support for the delay.

I know this committee has also afforded me that opportunity when licenses have come up that really had a lot of public input in Ward 7 that needed to be resolved, including safety concerns and what I heard here today sounds very serious, and so I think there is uh a lot of room here for.

Um, I heard one of the the testifiers mention a good neighbor agreement, which I think could be a really positive step.

And just to note that, you know, I do represent um downtown and the warehouse district, and we do have a lot of late night businesses, but what we also have is police, you know, contracted for off duty.

We have a late night safety plan, we have downtown late night ambassadors, and those resources don't necessarily exist on this corridor to mitigate the bar closure and everything that happens at 2 a.m.

So I am really concerned with having a business open that late in this area, and I think the work that needs to be done between Councilmember Chowdhury and business licensing team and the community and the business will hopefully resolve a large portion of the concerns, if not all of the concerns that are currently happening.

Thank you, Chair Asman.

Um I'll just start out by saying I do support the motion by Councilmember Chowdry to uh delay this a couple of cycles, I think you said.

But you know, I I want to just um I guess amplify Councilmember Ritao's um you know statement we we literally just heard uh previous testifier say that the violence at 15th and Lake Street is cause for concern and can we delay it?

We did not delay it.

I I have eaten at Los Ocampos.

I just saw them on the news talking about their expansion, and I think it's uh a really good business.

But we literally heard the same things that we're hearing from this um group of people about concerns for this business.

I don't represent the area where Cedar Ann is I represent the area directly across the street.

And I have had several um constituents reach out to me and say that they are deeply concerned about this business and how it operates, as am I.

I'm curious, I don't I don't know what building can staff help me understand which new building is it uh hamburger Iglesias building?

I mean, that's the only thing I can think of.

Through the Jair Council Member Jenkins.

So the current location is attached to the Hamburguesa El Gordo, um, and then there's the parking lot, and then there's the gopher lighting building.

They have purchased the gopher lighting building, and that is the applicant location is to go into the new gopher lighting uh location that would own that building as well as the parking lot.

So that building is huge.

Yeah.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Wonderful.

Thank you, uh Councilmember Jenkins.

Uh also uh my comments is that thank you, neighbors, for coming.

Uh we hear your concern, and uh definitely want to make sure the families and people that live there have uh a peaceful life, uh, you know, being a being a good resident, I support the motion.

And um I hope that you know uh business owners can meet with you and and really listen to your concern is a real concern.

Uh also I do want to uh mention that those few comments that was made about uh the previous license we approved.

The previous license we approved uh uh the issue was not the business.

The issue was the area, even the Brenda who spoke say she has nothing against the business.

It was just the area.

But here, as you testify as witnesses, that you are actually saying the problem is coming from the bar, uh the noises, the everything that's s that's going on.

So that comparison um just want to clarify that and I support this motion and I'm hoping that the business license uh can take it very serious on and and make a you know recommendation to the council and uh councilmember Chowdhury will be definitely uh involved in that conversation.

So I'll look forward to the next couple of cycles.

Councilmember Chowdhury.

Chow us.

Oh, I'm sorry, Councilmember Jason Shavis.

Thank you.

It's gonna be October 14th.

Okay.

It's in two meetings, correct?

Perfect.

I hope that in the meantime, I think neighbors talked about a good neighbor agreement.

Would love to see what that looks like.

I will say though, this is different from the the previous liquor license that we just approved.

Neighbors here clearly talked about some of the issues with the business, uh talking about the noise that is coming from the building at night uh and the things that can be adequately addressed.

I believe some of those issues can be addressed through good neighbor agreement.

Obviously, that's gonna be up to staff to figure out through conversations with the residents that live in the area.

But the issues that were being brought up from 15th and Lake isn't from the business, it's from the area from the neighborhood where we have seen gun violence impact our neighbors on 15th and Lake and across Lake Street over the past few weeks specifically.

So I want to at least be very clear in that there are two very different instances, and it's not to be connected with one another.

Thank you, Councilmember uh Chavez.

Uh Councilmember Jenkins.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um I'm curious uh what is gonna happen with uh current site then.

If the business is moving, I'm not sure what's gonna happen with the current seater in.

Through the chair, council member Jenkins.

So the current plan is to continue running the Cedar in.

Once the new allocation has been approved and up with running, the Cedar in will close as an establishment, and I believe that he is looking to license it as possibly a rental hall or some kind of private event only.

It will not be running um as it is once the license has moved.

So it would be um shut down as the Cedar in, and the new location would be the Cedar in.

That is a currently a leased property.

Thank you.

And they purchased the GoPro lighting building.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Uh so now with the motion to continue two cycles, which is uh October 14.

Uh, and the public hearing will be open.

So if there's any additional presidents who want to come speak, uh, are welcome to come uh on that on that day.

So with that motion, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

And those opposed say nay.

The ayes have it, and the motion carries.

Thank you so much, everyone.

All right.

Now we're we're moving to uh uh two discussion items.

Uh we will take up together.

This two ordinance received no action at our last committee meeting and thus stay in in the committee.

Councilmember Shaves uh would like to first speak on this item.

Uh thank you, Chairman Osman.

Well, it wasn't able to get out of committee last cycle, so I mean if there's appetite to move this forward without recommendation that I would be supportive of that.

Otherwise, I already brought forward a motion at the last council meeting to discharge it from full council.

So that vote is happening no matter what at full council.

So, up to the members of this body if they want to just forward without recommendation.

Otherwise, we'll just take that vote at the next council meeting at this point.

Um, so uh was that a question for members?

Yes.

Okay.

I see council member uh Fita and also Jenkins.

Thank you, Chair.

Um I would prefer to uh wait for the next council cycle.

I don't know what happened in the last council meeting or what you know what I mean.

Like I I'm not up to speed on what happened, so I prefer to wait for the council cycle, please.

Councilmember Jenkins, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

My um my preference would be to move it to the floor council.

Thank you.

The Chair House, I'll move I'll move this forward without recommendation.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

You mentioned that you have a motion to discharge at the floor council.

Yes.

Perfect.

Then we can just do nothing, just leave it on the agenda.

Was that uh clerk?

I would recommend that as well, since it's already gonna be discharged and has future action.

There we go.

Just do nothing.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, we do nothing, then.

We'll move to the next.

We did something.

We haven't taken any motion, but for the public, uh, we will have this item um coming up on the full council.

Uh next, uh we will have um lastly, we will be receiving a file and presentation about the African American Heritage Work Group report.

Senior city planner Aaron Kaye is here to speak about this appointed body.

Welcome.

Good afternoon, Chair Osman and Council members.

My name is Aaron Kaye, and I am a senior city planner in the historic preservation subsection of the Department of Community Planning and Economic Development, or CPED.

I'm here today to share about highlights about the African American Heritage Work Group, or AAHWG, which was a Tier 4 appointed body that met from July 2024 to June 2025.

Staff have prepared a report on the formation, implementation, recommendations, and impact of this work group.

We note different equitable engagement strategies used and lessons learned, and hope this report will be a useful tool to others who may want to form a work group or task force, especially one focused on a specific identity or community.

This slide is an overview of the contents of the report.

So a handful of the slides will have more text on it than we'll go over together just so it's part of the public record.

But this report covers how and why the group was formed, the application and interview process, who was selected, how we ran the meetings, and what happened at the meetings.

The report has specific recommendations and reflections from work group members to ensure that their voices are included.

And we conclude with our takeaways and how this group will have a lasting impact on the city.

This initiative supports at least six policies in Minneapolis 2040 across heritage preservation, arts and culture, and public health.

The AAHWG was formed specifically to advise on the Minneapolis African American Historic and Cultural Context Study.

We were fortunate to have an intergenerational group of 15 community members with a wide variety of talents, expertise, and lived experiences.

This context study tells a lot of the history of African Americans and people of African descent in Minneapolis from around 1800 to the present.

CPED has been working on this project since 2019.

And the first phase involved community engagement through six virtual engagement meetings.

The community-led consultant team also drafted an outline for this context study.

The second phase was undertaken over the past year and a half, and we hired historians to write the study.

The team also included technical advisors who are knowledgeable in black history.

The context study is now posted on our website, and we've been sharing it via email over the past month.

It can also be accessed through several area libraries.

This slide shows an overview of the seven meetings, and we want to convey that each meeting was really a building block for the next.

The major tasks spanned multiple meetings, which was really helpful to nurture the discussion.

And then we ended with a celebration and reflections on the work undertaken.

As you all know well from working with community, it takes a lot of time and effort and care to build trust and strong relationships with community members, and that was definitely the case with this work group.

Councilmember Jenkins previously noted to you all when uh you passed an honorary resolution resolution in June that this group did a lot of work in a short amount of time.

So their main tasks were to provide guidance on the research design, and that helped set uh the direction of the project.

They also reviewed and commented on the context study draft, correcting information and suggesting additional topics to include.

They developed a robust list of ideas for how else African American and black heritage can be acknowledged, recorded, and recognized for its rightful place in our city and state's history.

And this particular task was actually suggested by the work group near the beginning.

It wasn't part of staff's original plan, but we're really glad to have been able to hold this discussion.

Finally, they selected 40 sites in Minneapolis that are tied to black history, of which 25 were studied for their potential eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and Local Landmark designation.

The end product uh is a really beautiful 223-page document that is filled with rich stories.

So this slide shows the table of contents to convey that it covers a vast array of topics, from how folks arrived here, where they lived, worshipped, and worked, how they spent their leisure time, and the more painful aspects of the continual fight for civil rights.

We know there are so many more stories that can and should be uplifted in the future, and as we've been rolling this out, we're already hearing from community members who would like to have their families' stories told, and so we'll figure out how we can include them in the future.

The work group also generated a variety of recommendations that can be undertaken by the city, by community partners, and by community members who are passionate about preserving this history.

This map here shows the location of the 25 African American sites that were studied.

So you can see they are across the city.

The names are also listed again just for future reference.

I know we don't have time to go through all of them today.

Seventeen of the sites are still standing and recommended as potentially eligible for local landmark designation and/or national register listing.

Eight of them are no longer standing or have changed too much to be eligible, but the workgroup wanted to include those in the study to recognize that important history happened in these places, and to also recognize that they have been demolished for a variety of reasons.

We are going to move forward with nominating three of these sites to the national register with the property owner's permission.

And for the rest, we won't take any further action at this point unless community members or the property owners express interest.

This slide shows specific recommendations made by work group members, which I will summarize for you.

Some of the running themes include centering community voices in planning processes, ensuring representation at all stages of a process, and tying preservation with economic investment in the community.

Oral histories, especially with community elders are encouraged.

The work group in particular would like to see more come out of this than simply putting plaques on a building as one example.

This was a brand new initiative for staff, and we also learned a lot along the way.

It was really essential to be responsive to feedback, provide information as requested, and make changes to the plan as needed.

We wanted to give the members the power to make decisions wherever possible.

We also prioritized inclusion to make sure each member felt like they could contribute and bring folks up to speed if they missed a meeting.

As you might have experienced, these processes can sometimes feel and be extractive.

And so we really wanted to counteract that by showing them how their input was taken into account.

And based on the feedback that we've gotten through this process, I do think that they were able to see themselves and their ideas reflected in the output.

As you have time, I hope you'll read their comments directly in their report to hear what it meant to them to be a part of this project.

I do want to raise one topic that came up a few times, which is compensation among work group members.

They observed that city staff and consultants were paid to be present, and they recommended figuring out how to compensate community members for their time, knowledge, and expertise.

I imagine this is something that has come up with you all before.

For those for this group, although we were unable to provide stipends, we did offer parking vouchers or metro transit passes for coming to the meetings.

Now that the context study is published, we are sharing the reports with the public.

We've received a really overwhelmingly positive response so far.

I presented at the statewide historic preservation conference last week along with three work group members, which was great to get to share that with folks interested in the work.

We also have a grant to do those national register nominations, which will be for the Minnesota Spokesman Recorder Building, the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center, and Harry Davis Seniors House.

And we'll make sure to share a newsbite with you all so you can share it with your constituents.

And in closing, there are many people who have contributed to this effort.

I do want to share the names of the work group members for the record.

We're so grateful for their service.

They include Daniel Bergen, James Curry, Kendra Elner, Tierra Farrad, the late Michelle Gibson, who sadly passed away in April, Minister Dr.

Ora Hoax, Denise Jameson, Brian Kelly, Michelle Lincoln, Greg McMoore, Julia Maturi, Beverly Propes, Dabu Seru, Ten A.

Wells, and Keegan Zabi.

We want to acknowledge the foundations laid by many community members who have already been preserving this history.

And for me, I'd like to give a special thank you to my colleagues in CPED and the clerk's office, as well as the City Council and Mayor Jacob Fry for supporting this work.

This concludes my presentation.

I'm happy to answer any questions if you have any.

Thank you so much for that presentation.

Thank you, Chair Osman.

Thank you so much for this presentation and thank you to all the committee meet uh members and community members who contributed to this.

You know, you spoke of Michelle Gibson.

She was a ward for a resident, a historian, a person who loved community.

She did so much work for us around Juneteenth and bringing community together.

That was, I wouldn't even say her baby.

That was like her set of triplets.

It was so much work in that Juneteenth celebration, and she was always so happy about it and um just so willing to work with everyone on making it better.

And so we definitely missed Michelle this year at Juneteenth, and we'll miss her for years to come.

And thank you all so much for not only protecting and preserving our heritage, but also the work you're doing with the young people on educating them.

Some of the people in this group, I see them in commute in community a lot with young people and just keeping the heritage in the history alive, and that means a lot.

So thank you and keep at it.

I I definitely understand the you know the need for us to pay for this sort of work.

If there's a way for us to figure it out, I'm happy to do so with my colleagues, but I do appreciate all the work and um how we are working to preserve history, especially in Minneapolis.

Thank you.

Councilmember Jenkins.

Thank you, Chair Osman.

I too want to just say thank you for this work uh that you and the committee have brought forward.

I had the honor of uh authoring a resolution and and subsequently presenting it to the um the work group.

Um I'm just really thrilled with the information that you guys have been able to uncover and the plans to uh seek historic designation for three of the sites that we identified or that were identified, I should say, and um look forward to seeing those come to fruition.

Um, yeah, thanks for for all the efforts.

I do agree that we should be compensating our work group members that we asked to come and share their expertise, their time, their energy and and commitment to city processes.

So it's been a long standing battle, and um I hope it continues.

Right.

Uh well thank you so much for that presentation.

I remember when this group was getting started, was super excitement to end really for them to see and and you know did all do all this work.

Of course, I agree that we should be compensating and and making sure that their time is valuable.

They are carrying uh a beautiful history and and uh you know we'll love to love to find a way to support them the work they do.

So with that being said, I I do have one question.

I know you mentioned there has been 25 properties that was um, you know, recommended for potential, eligible for local landmark and national registry places uh listing.

Can you just uh give us what what does that mean?

I mean, what when do we see that recommendation?

Is that something that has to go through the council?

Um, you know, what is uh we we understand the benefit of really highlighting the history uh of African American um and but what what does it mean and when do we expect this recommendations to come forward if if it's come come through the council.

Thank you, Chair Osman.

Um so for the sites that were studied, we went through a process of the the work group brainstorming what these sites should be, and then they came up with a list and we started contacting folks.

It's not typical that we um actually reach out to property owners to study their property, but we wanted to do this a bit differently.

So we reached out to property owners, asked for their consent to try to bring them along with the process.

And so for the 25 that got studied, um, we did have the property owner permission, especially for those ones that are still standing.

Um, this first pass is really a research effort, right?

It's looking at, you know, who lived there, who worked there, when was this built, and is there something that might be important for black history with these sites?

And then after we had the survey results, I reached back out to the property owners, shared the results with them, and presented the options.

So based on this information, we have two different paths.

One is a national register of historic places designation, which is honorary in nature.

Another path would be local landmark designation, which is something that you all uh would get to vote on if a property is brought forward through that process.

For the three that got selected for the national register nomination, you know, that was their choice that they wanted to pursue that path.

And you know, I think the door is open for for conversations in the future in terms of whether any of them might want to pursue a local landmark designation, or if any of the other properties that studied, if they decide they might want to pursue those options, we just really wanted to be mindful to not act without their consent uh in this process to do things a little bit differently from what may have been done historically.

Thank you so much for helping.

Great, thank you so much.

I think it's very important for us legislators of the city of Minneapolis to, of course, make sure that we are putting a lot of energy, you know, recognizing and and pointing places that are important historically for African American uh folks that are coming visiting us, uh, you know, picking up pro short and saying that, well, here's all the list important places that historically had a huge effect in in African American history.

So thank you so much for working on this and thanks for CBIT.

And uh I will ask um City Clerk to receive a file on this report.

All right, see no one else uh with no further discussion, uh will um adjourn this meeting adjourn.

I'll declare this adjourned.

Thank you so much.

Okay, okay.